Data taken from FVREB

British Columbia government is once again trying to appear as if they're taking action on the real estate front by implementing a 'cooling-off' period for buyers that allows time to back out of a real estate agreement. I believe this to be another "smoke and mirrors" tactic; the government has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of maintaining the status quo in the real estate market with the enormous property transfer taxes they collect from every property transfer. There is little incentive for them to make real changes to address affordability that could affect the governments very lucrative money machine.
If they were really looking out for the interests of buyers then the preferable route to take would be: (1) Implement a mandatory due diligence period for all buyers prior to making an offer. (2) An end to the blind bidding process.
Since Buyers will now have a way out; the market could get even more chaotic and frustrating as buyers could potentially offer on multiple homes as the same time. If every buyer is now offering on multiple properties the competition could get even fiercer, pushing prices higher.